Carlos Mazón has tried everything in the two months that have passed since the DANA in Valencia that claimed the lives of 223 people. Firstly, establish a chronology of events that would favor him politically, that is, that would obviate his absences on the day of the tragedy. Then a vague promise that he will only run for re-election if reconstruction is a success. Then, demanding a gigantic amount of money from the central government while it restricted the amounts contributed by the regional administration to a minimum. Finally, make it clear to your party that you are tied to your destiny. If he goes down, everyone will go down with him.
The third demonstration in Valencia to demand his resignation this Sunday was once again massive and brought together some 80,000 people in the middle of the Christmas holidays. The city’s newspapers put it on their front pages. The right-wing press in Madrid preferred to ignore it or affirm that the figure was lower than those of the other two calls. No matter how hard they try, that popular fury is not going to disappear. Toñi García, a worker at the Department of Tourism, lost her husband and daughter in the disaster. He explained to this newspaper why he was there: “All together we have to get the president of the Generalitat to resign and pay for his ineptitude, for not doing his job, for him to have the shame of continuing in office after not knowing do your job. “He still continues to lie to the Valencian people, but no one believes him.”
Mazón has not even managed to give a complete and unalterable version of what he did on October 29. He is retouching the versions to be able to accommodate the criticism received. In the last days of the year, the lunch of at least three hours with the journalist to whom he unsuccessfully offered the presidency of the regional radio and television station haunted him again. On the occasion of the El Ventorro restaurant bill, he repeated an unbelievable version, improvising an answer that he had not given until now and that was even more ridiculous than what he had previously said. In order not to have to show proof of payment, he said that it had not been paid with public funds. The excuse was to say that he attended the meal “as president of the PP”, a trick that was not going to work.
Apparently, Mazón took off the cap of the president of the Generalitat and put on that of the president of his party when entering the restaurant. But he could not say that it was a private act that was not part of his work agenda, although in reality that was what his Government initially supported.
The conclusion, even if Mazón’s version is accepted, continues to be very negative for his image. What he is saying is that, on the most important day in his career as president of the community, he was theoretically busy with his party’s affairs. Hence he said that the invoice will be included in the documentation that the PP sends at the time to the Court of Auditors. It may take a long time until it is known. This court is not characterized by the speed in carrying out its work.
His attitude makes us suspect that this invoice hides something that Mazón does not want to be known. Not so much the price, but the time the payment was recorded or the number of diners.
The worst thing is when the politician in question assumes that politicians and journalists are idiots. After asking him on countless occasions about the El Ventorro lunch, Mazón came out last week with a phrase that left everyone speechless or wondering how far the president’s face goes: “I didn’t say before that it was a PP meal because no one asked ”. He had been asked so many times and in so many different ways that weeks ago, with a look of boredom, he had stated that he had nothing more to say about that appointment because he had already told everything.
In public, the Popular Party has decided to provide full support to Mazón. Alberto Núñez Feijóo has done it: “The only politician who has continued managing.” Some want to please the leader so much that they fall into unrealistic rhetoric. Cuca Gamarra defined the management of the Valencian president a few days ago as “an exercise of the highest political honesty.” You have to see what this woman has to do to keep her job.
Privately, the Valencian PP is aware of the extent to which its president’s reputation has fallen and the damage he is doing to his party, as has been proven by several surveys. This is what was written in the conservative newspaper Las Provincias after the last demonstration: “DANA has drawn a new scenario on the Valencian right. The cruising speed that the popular enjoyed until that fateful date has disappeared.”
Regarding the “very high political honesty” that Gamarra praised, his party colleagues privately have more than just doubts. “Everyone suspects that he is lying,” a source from the Valencian PP told El País.
It is almost better not to ask him for more versions about what he did in the restaurant, in addition to his behavior in the rest of the day. Listening to another story with more lies would be too painful for the relatives of the 223 dead. Not telling the truth is in the short term the only strategy that makes sense for Mazón.
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